Brands Outlet - quilted mini crossbody handbag

There's a reason why I got two of these mini handbags sold under the Garage label .

One ...size . Small, yet big enough for me to put my phone , purse and tissues in . Plus , a mini crossbody bag of this size , makes it easier for me to hide it out of sight from potential snatch thieves !

Second reason ....when it comes to this store , should I decide to sleep over it and come back another day , there's a high chance it won't be there anymore ! Any bag with a full length heavy gold strap is gonna cost as least 80 ringgit in other stores .

Here ?

Foong Yean - 6 course feast

Best to make a booking before you arrive , as even though the restaurant is not that large , yet this venue is extremely popular due to the remarkable prices and generous portions .

Without further ado , I'm gonna plunge right in and introduce you to the items we picked off the menu .

Take note that all these cost us just 200 ringgit , rice and Chinese tea included .

First up , Indonesian prawns .

Tried this at another place near Bukit Jambul ( they've since shifted to Lembah Permai area ) and I absolutely hated that . However , this is so heavenly , you'll want to suck the roe , inside of the heads and the shell dry of the divinely spicy curry sauce , I'm afraid I'll have to give this a 5 star for amazing freshness ( the meat is packed so tight ! ) and fabulous taste !

Seeking Permission to Perform - Mountain Sea Ying Yang Temple

This post is way overdue . Having problems posting it up partly because I'm not accustomed to these rituals and practices and as such I do not want to make any mistakes nor end up offending any person or deity .

So I guess the best way is for me to post up the pictures by sequence of events first before adding remarks to them where applicable . And when I finish slotting in my remarks , it's gonna come off as pretty idiotic in many instances below , which shows you the depth of understanding I have of the proceedings . Hope you can overlook that but I'm gonna push ahead and post it up anyway because I'm not going to pretend that I fully grasp the event or know which character role is being represented ok ? Bear with me please .

The first picture here is of the altar just outside the Mountain Sea Ying Yang Temple . Basically a Taoist temple , the Chinese opera troupe performers are seeking permission from the resident spirits and deities housed in this temple , in order to get the go ahead , to perform for the King of Hell housed in an adjacent shelter .

Yeah , you cannot just perform as and when you wish ok ?

Permission has to be sought first .

Ikea Sneak & Pick - Batu Kawan

We were contemplating whether or not to come , weather permitting of course , as you can see it was nice and sunny and here we are .

Between both of us , we grabbed an ADDE chair , ROTERA lantern , IKEA PS FÅNGST hanging storage , ORDNING cutlery holder , BÄSTIS lint roller , a JÄLL laundry basket and JÄLL drying rack . Lots of people snapped up the Lack side table , but I really don't need a side table lol , hence we took all the mentioned .

Update : please take note that the event is only limited to the first 400 people , between 10am to 2pm on the 16th and 17th September . Open only to valid MyKad holders above 21 years old .

Hungry Ghost Festival at Lim Jetty - a few of my favourite pics

 I'll begin by showing you some dramatic snaps of the traditional performers involved , before I move onto what I recorded ( yes I will post them up despite them being blurry ) in yet another post after this one .

Traditional performances used to be the norm before those nightclub concerts .

Meant to entertain those on a one month prison break from hell , so to speak , 

there are rituals to observe before the  actual performance itself and that's what I'm gonna focus on later . 

All , except the last picture was taken around the Suan Hai Ing Yang Tian or Mountain Sea Ying Yang Temple , that faces the sea . It might be of interest to observe that the said temple is dedicated to the God of Hades , thus has depictions of hell on its wall , so you might want to check it out even if you come off season .

Anyway , the last shot , is one of the 2 musicians for the night , where he was seated in shelter housing the King of Hell . Somehow I felt that I needed to snap him , despite him being very humbly clothed . 

Enjoy ....

An eerie coincidence

Last night , I joined a local Hungry Ghost tour led by a volunteer guide simply because I thought that by doing so , it would finally help rid me of an innate fear of the festival .

By doing so , it meant that I was going to break a couple of taboos associated with the Hungry Ghost month .

First , I would be wandering around darkened streets .

Next , night photography would also be involved seeing how I snap almost everthing .

Third . I wore black .

Fourth .....lies in the eerie coincidence snapped in this picture below .

Tajuddin Hussain - mood lifting kandar and briyani

 Many operators claim to offer nasi briyani in Penang , but I've always walked away disappointed . 

 Well , my search ends here . This plate is Da Bomb ! 

Suuuuuper delicious , so addictive and soooooo satisfying , I wish I could eat this everyday without murdering my hips .

Tesco F & F Active athletic wear - some hits , some misses

I do shop at Tesco often . Even when I pop into Thailand , sometimes I check out the stores there as well . 

Actually bought one of my first sports bras from Tesco , a black with mottled pink edging under the Assign label . I'll be very honest about that sports bra . 

Although it did hold my boobs up well , washing was a nightmare . First wash , caused the colour to run and bleed , staining the removable inner sponge to a dirty colour. Ugh . 

Next annoyance was the stitching . The underside where the band is , seemed to crack with each fitting and that really bothered the heck out of me . That initial bra became extremely faded and looked like a very, very sad old rag by the third wash  .

Miss # 1

Miss # 2 is a striped sleeveless mesh tee that turned out to be so ugly , I wonder what came over me . Doesn't deserve any pics either m

Now you're probably wondering why I didn't ask for a refund or shop elsewhere then ? Simple , because I was much larger than I am now , there just wasn't any other option .

Panic caused by a hoodie

Right , I finally picked up a camouflage hoodie . At long last after searching far and wide !

It's made from 100% polyester , and zips up beyond the neck .

When it comes to hoodies , I'm not willing to fork out a hundred ringgit and above not yet . And believe me , I've gone to many shops to try them out , but so far I have not found one that suits me even at a higher price tag .

Whopper of a Black Pearl durian

It's a wet night in Georgetown . Cold , dank and dreary .

Perfect weather for consuming heaty foods .

We polish off the Guinness Stout beef with leeks I personally whipped up in the slow cooker earlier ,before we head out ,in search of some durians to cap off the simple meal .

15 , 20 , 30 - any real Penang durian left ?

Durian season in the northern region has officially ended 2 weeks back . 

Somehow , the fruit hawkers here are still pretending like whatever they are selling is all from Penang .

There are still the odd harvests from this farm and that , but to claim that  all the thorny fruits are from Penang island , now , that's an outright lie .

However most tourists , in particular , those flying in here from mainland China on group tours  , being unable to tell the difference as well as being very hard pressed for time , have been responsible for snapping up every durian in sight ! Bad or good , most times they pay any amount for them and that's so stupid lemme tell you .

Dimsum detective

We popped into our usual dimsum haunt this morning in Georgetown .

Nothing very unusual about the bill , the only thing we did out of the norm was to pick a spot in a completely different part of the large dining area .

Penny Farthing Pastor

Can you believe this ?

I didn't at first. Thought my eyes were playing tricks on me .

Cat with a hangover

It's International Cat Day ( oh really ? ) yet I have to say that I absolutely no idea who the cat belongs to ( obviously someone , hence the collar ) but as I crept up on the meow meow ...

Teochew style steamed Jenahak and a Szechuan veg soup

We rarely have steamed fish as I'm superrrrrrrrr fussy about the freshness , while he cannot stand Chinese wine in his food .

But I wanted a break from deep fried stuff and

so , not wanting to pay a ransom , we walked into Sum Sook where I made it very clear to the order taker , that we wanted no wine in the fish please and left the rest up to fate .

Well it turned out more than right . We loved it !

Steamed with the right amount of Suan chai ( salted mustard greens from China ) , pickled plums , ginger , deep fried garlic and tomatoes , this was done to Perfection for me because the marinade was delicious beyond words ! Those of you  who love your fish just cooked might find fault with Sum Sook's style . Not us . We fought over this to the end till there were no salted vegies or fish meat left for any stray cat !

Mee Tiao - Teochew take on Long Life noodles

Mee tiao is a really tasty Teochew noodle dish meant for once a year birthday celebrations especially if there is a matriach or patriach in the household .

However , the texture of the noodle used by the Teochews in Penang is different from the Hokkien version . 

The Teochew version , has more bite and chew ( pun not intended ) to it while the Hokkiens , prefer a silkier texture , which leads some to use the flat egg noodles and others to use a fresh ramen like round yellow noodle , which makes it really confusing if you want to debate on what belongs to who . 

As far as I know , when it comes to the Hokkiens , the most important feature of the noodle that must not be compromised ....

.is the length . 

The longer , the better !

One should not cut it ,even if some of us might have a high chance of choking on it , so I guess why it's called Long Life Noodles since you can deem yourself a survivor after that celebratory  meal ! 

Due to intermarriage between the clans , as well as convenience and cost ( frugality embedded into the genes ) , cheaper localised , yellow noodles found acceptance amongst homemakers at first , and then only much later , was it turned into an everyday available dish , by enterprising hawkers , much in the same manner as how Hakka pan mee evolved into hawker fare today .

Yeah , the whole lot of us helped popularise long life noodles from an exclusive birthday celebratory meal into a commercialised breakfast , lunch , or dinner ( depending on the shop ) offering .

Nowadays , the cooks aren't so particular or superstitious , about the length either . Me thinks , it is because they don't want anyone dying on their premises hence , they will shorten it for you unless you have one super alpha matriach who really pantang to the max if you dare do that ( but I think that era is gone already ) .

Back to the subject at hand .

You can actually find this particular noodle , in a few good mid range Chinese restaurants in Penang . It's when you want to enjoy it in a sticky , greasy hawker centre , that it can get a little confusing as sometimes , some hawkers call it Char Mee Sua .

You know ? Birthday Noodles in one place , Char Mee Sua , Mee Tiao ....they may all mean the same thing but they may also be variations as far apart as the sun and the moon !

Now , when it comes to Char Mee Sua , you may pop in to the Cecil Street wetmarket in the afternoon .

Honestly , that used to be my favourite place for Char Mee Sua but lately , I suspect they are using bad oil , so I have not returned for a long time already .

So , where best , if you do not want to pay so much ? Public Cafe lah .

Restoran Subham - new place for banana leaf rice

Inside the Little India enclave in Georgetown , more and more of these banana leaf places are slowly being taken over by Chinese and Thai owners .

Which sadly leads to a real screw up in terms of taste , till I've begun shunning one outlet which used to be frequented by those in the law profession  .

Then , I came across Subham when I scoured the area for a new place , one which served a decent banana leaf meal , so familiar to our tastebuds .

Green Skin and Black Pearl - Durians from Penang and Pahang in one sitting !

I did a takeaway on just one single  packet costing 20 ringgit , just to test this new trader out the other day . 

The first bite triggered something in me . I remembered having eaten it as a child , the taste was all at once , grassy , nurturing , comforting ,  lightly gassy midway , with a potent climax at the last bit , and so we returned again for more .

Brussels Beer Café - table for four

By the time we realised that we had definitely overordered , perched on the high chair area right in the corner , we made a quiet resolve to systematically remove some plates bit by bit because if you assembled them all at once , it would have looked like we had just been let out of prison .

Right , let's see what we shared amongst ourselves .

Beer Food Platter comprising ...

Blind finches ( I could drink the sauce provided together with it , all day , and get drunk on that alone lolz ), roast pork ( mouthwatering crackling skin is always such a bonus ) , squid tentacles , smoked duck breast ( fantastic ! ) , Belgian frites .

Good Luck Bah Kut Teh - Bayan Baru

Well , well , well .

Just when you least expect cheap , clean and fast to exist side by side on Penang island , walla , a place like this pops up .

And when I say cheap , I am not referring to those places where bah kut teh still costs MYR 5.50 per portion for per person . Don't know about elsewhere , but if it costs that little on the island , you're freaking risking it ! Not gonna elaborate on that matter further .

Anyway , the cheap I am talking about , hovers around ( more or less ) 10 ringgit per person . 

Certain places command two times that amount but don't expect premium meat . Sometimes , I think those expensive joints are either scams or pure herd mentality hype .

Lemme explain further with regards to the pricing ....if you order a bowl of bah kut teh soup for 2 pax , at Good Luck , it is just gonna cost you around 20 ringgit , not inclusive of drinks , rice and any add ons .

3 persons = 30ish , 4 = 40 ish .